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Universal Grammar (UG) Many linguists claim that there is a great deal in common among the grammars of the world ’ s languages. Most advocates of this position believe that the commonalities exist because linguistic structure is largely determined by human biology. The term ‘ universal grammar ’ is used to mean three subtly different things: i. what is common to the world ’ s languages ii. linguists ’ representations of these commonalities iii. the biological structures that are claimed to underlie the common features Sag et al. (2003: 570)

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Evidence for UG in L1A L1A is: Quick Effortless Uniform across stages of acquisition Robust in terms of noisy/variable input It shows equipotentiality across learners

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Evidence for UG in SLA? We will consider the evidence in the next module